NASA’s Paying $18K To Lie in Bed

A NASA study is recruiting volunteers to lie in a bed that is tilted downward at a 6 degree angle for 70 days. If you complete the entire bed rest project you will earn up to $18,000.

The study is meant to test the conditions that astronauts might experience while traveling in space. Volunteers will be required to live in a bed rest facility located in NASA‘s Flight Analogs Research Unit (FARU) in Galveston, Texas. The subjects will be split into two groups. Some will be required to spend 105 days living in the facility and go through a variety of resistance and aerobic exercises while remaining on bed rest. The others will spend 97 days, and will not be required to do the exercises.

While in bed you can play on your phone, read books, Skype, take online classes, or anything else you want …. as long as you don’t stand up. Wondering about showering and using the bathroom? No worries NASA has a modified shower device so the subjects will not need to stand.

Heather Archuletta, a NASA contractor for the studies program, previously volunteered for a bed rest study for the space agency in 2008.

“Even when it was sometimes challenging, I tried to remember I was doing this for astronauts, so that we can keep them more healthy in space,” she said to Forbes. “The day I got up, after being in bed for 54 days, my feet hurt like crazy walking for the first time! But, I reminded myself, this is what astronauts go through, too. Being a ground analog tester for astronauts is exciting, because you get to experience a lot of the things they do.”